Harvard Constitutional Law Expert Says Justice 'Misleadingly' Quoted Him In Roe Ruling
Outspoken Harvard University Law professor Laurence Tribe on Saturday accused conservative Supreme Court justices of “misleadingly quoting” him to justify their decision to throw out Roe v. Wade.
“Don’t be fooled,” warned Tribe, an expert on the Constitution. “The writings from which the Court cherry-picked my quotes were totally supportive of the result in Roe,” he added.
The Dobbs majority misleadingly quotes me on pages 50 and 54 in straining to justify a decision the dissent rightly calls an exercise in “power, not reason.” Don’t be fooled. The writings from which the Court cherry-picked my quotes were totally supportive of the result in Roe.
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) June 25, 2022
Tribe didn’t detail how his words were twisted or taken out of context by the conservatives on the Court. But he did call for the decision that affects “tens of millions of women” to be “undone.”
Three men — Presidents GHW Bush (Justice Thomas), GW Bush (Justices Alito, Roberts), Trump (Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Alito) — two of whom won with a minority of the popular vote — have done this to tens of millions of women and to the rule of law. This must be undone.
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) June 25, 2022
Tribe also called out Justice Samuel Alito for not bothering to fix inaccuracies in his “shoddy” ruling that had been pointed out by historians in his draft of the opinion released last month.
Alito was criticized at the time for justifying his decision by repeatedly quoting someone he characterized as a “great” and “eminent” legal authority: Sir Matthew Hale.
But Hale was hardly that, historians complained. The English judge, who lived from 1609 to 1676, sentenced “witches” to death, and wrote an infamous treatise warning authorities to distrust women who reported being raped. He also declared that in marriage, a woman placed her body under her husband’s “permanent dominion,” rendering any marital rape accusation illegitimate.
In addition, Alito misrepresented facts about Hale’s time when abortion was unregulated until a fetus “quickened,” or was first felt moving in the womb, which can happen as late as 25 weeks into a pregnancy, University of Minnesota Law Professor Jill Elaine Hasday noted in The Washington Post after Alito’s opinion was leaked.
As for Alito’s repetitive citations and gushing praise of Hale (which remained in the final decision), it’s “long past time to leave that misogyny behind,” wrote Hasday.
Tribe complained that Alito paid absolutely no heed to the criticism of Hale because “he and those joining him feel untouchable and answer to no one.”
This Court’s version of the Constitution governs with a dead hand and an iron fist. It entrusts government with health control and entitles people to gun care. https://t.co/9QfoZWo3HX
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) June 25, 2022
More on the Supreme Court abortion ruling:
Supreme Court strikes down Roe v. Wade, dismantling decades-old precedent
Roe overturned: The fight begins
Abortion is now illegal in these states
Liberal justices dissent with “sorrow” for “millions of American women”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “We have to fill the streets”
Clarence Thomas: Cases protecting gay marriage and contraception should be next
Republicans make it clear they want to ban abortion nationwide
Donald Trump praises SCOTUS decision
West Coast states launch a plan to protect out-of-state abortion patients
Here’s how the world is reacting to the end of Roe
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
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